Captain: Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome on board this Air France flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Berlin-Tegel.

Captain: My name is Andreas Büchner and I'm the captain of this aircraft.

Captain: We would like to point out that this flight is a non-smoking flight. Smoking is also forbidden in the washrooms.

Captain: The emergency exits of this craft are at the front and on the sides. Please find your nearest emergency exit now, so that later you won't get lost.

Captain: The weather is good today, so we expect a calm flight. We'll be in Berlin in about an hour.

Captain: Currently it's 26 degrees in Berlin and sunny. Hopefully it'll stay that way until our arrival. We'll give another report at the end of the flight.

Captain: Thanks very much, and have a good flight!

POST CONVERSATION BANTER

Judith: If you’re thinking about coming to Germany now, it’s important to know what to may or may not bring to Germany on airplane. One thing is if that you want to bring goods with more than 150 euros then you’ll need to pay taxes on them. There are also things that you just won’t bring into Germany.

Chuck: Weapons, weapon parts or ammunition including butterfly knives. German weapon laws are very strict. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.

VOCAB LIST

Chuck: The first word we shall see is?

Judith: [Dame].

Chuck: “Lady” or “madam”.

Judith: [Dame, die Dame] and the plural is [Damen].

Chuck: Next?

Judith: [herzlich].

Chuck: “Hearty” or “heartfelt”.

Judith: [herzlich].

Chuck: Next?

Judith: [Willkommen].

Chuck: “Welcome”.

Judith: [Willkommen].

Chuck: Next?

Judith: [Bord].

Chuck: “Board” or “shelf”.

Judith: [Bord, das Bord].

Chuck: Next?

Judith: [Kapitän].

Chuck: “Captain”.

Judith: [Kapitän, der Kapitän] and the plural is [Kapitäne].

Chuck: Next?

Judith: [hinweisen].

Chuck: “To indicate” or “suggest”.

Judith: [hinweisen].

Chuck: Next?

Judith: [Toilette].

Chuck: “Toilet”.

Judith: [Toilette, die Toilette] and the plural is [Toiletten].

Chuck: Next?

Judith: [verbieten].

Chuck: “To forbid”.

Judith: [verbieten].

Chuck: Next?

Judith: [Notausgang]

Chuck: “Emergency exist”.

Judith: [Notausgang] this is masculine and the plural is [Notausgänge].

Chuck: Next?

Judith: [Maschine].

Chuck: “Machine”.

Judith: [Maschine, die Maschine] and the plural is [Maschinen].

Chuck: Next?

Judith: [erwarten].

Chuck: “To expect” or “to await”.

Judith: [erwarten].

Chuck: Next?

Judith: [ruhig].

Chuck: “Tranquil” or “cone”.

Judith: [ruhig].

Chuck: Next?

Judith: [etwa].

Chuck: “Approximately” or “in questions”.

Judith: [etwa].

Chuck: Next?

Judith: [Ende].

Chuck: “End”.

Judith: [Ende, das Ende] and the plural is [Enden].

VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE

Chuck: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.

Judith: The first phrase we’ll look at is [Meine Damen und Herren] this is a said expression meaning “Ladies and Gentlemen”. You’ll hear [meine Damen und Herren] at the beginning of a lot of speeches. There’s also a similar expression for letters, that is [Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren].

Chuck: “Much reviewed, ladies and gentlemen”.

Judith: [Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren] is what you should put at the beginning of every formal letter, unless you know the exact person you’re writing to. Next up, strangely enough [verboten] is a word that a lot of people know in German. [Verboten] means “forbidden” is actually the past participle of the word [verbieten] which means “to forbid”. Then, there is [nachsehen].

Chuck: The focus of this lesson is the genitive singular. In the beginning of Upper Beginner Lessons, we already had a general overview of German cases. Now it’s the time to study them in depth.

Judith: Today we shall start by looking at the genitive singular. The genitive is typically used to show possession, for example “the man’s name” is [der Name des Mannes] in German.

Chuck: Note that the genitive noun which in English comes first comes afterwards in German.

Judith: The key ending for the genitive singular is “es”, you’ll find it in various forms for masculine and neutral nouns.

Chuck: For example the definite article is [des] and the indefinite article is [eines], for genitive singular for masculine and neutral nouns.

Judith: Since the key ending is already present in the article, the adjective then only takes the bland “en” ending. However, some nouns will also add “es” or “s”, so you say [des guten Mannes, eines guten Mannes, des guten Kindes, eines guten Kindes].

Chuck: So what does these actually mean?

Judith: “Of the good man” or “of the good child”.

Chuck: Okay. The same ending even applies to possessive pronouns.

Judith: For example, in this lesson we had [am Ende unseres Fluges].

Chuck: “At the end of our flight” or “at our flight’s end”. For feminine nouns we don’t see any “s” ending anywhere. The nouns don’t change and the articles both end in “r”, [der, der] and [einer].

Judith: Again, any adjective just takes the neutral “en” ending, so we have [der guten Frau] or [einer guten Frau] “Of the good woman” or “Of a good woman”. Be aware that the genitive is slowly going out of use, in spoken German, people are more and more likely to say [der Name von dem Mann] instead [der Name des Mannes].

Chuck: Also the prepositions that traditionally took the genitive increasingly use the dative now.

Judith: Prepositions like [während]

Chuck: “During”.

Judith: Or [wegen].

Chuck: “Because of”. The genitive is slowly being replaced by the dative. Everywhere except in said phrases. This is especially true for the spoken language.

Judith: In written German, the genitive can still be found more often and German teachers might get angry at you if you’re not using the genitive in writing.

Chuck: Don’t worry, you just won’t.

Judith: Yeah. A teacher look at a kind of that is actually spoken. I don’t care much about the theoretical German.

OUTRO

Chuck: Well, that just about does it for today.

Judith: Get instant access to all of our language learning lessons.

Chuck: With any subscriptions, instantly access to our entire library of audio and video lessons.

Judith: Download the lessons or listen to them online.

Chuck: Put them on your phone or any other mobile device and listen, watch and learn anywhere.

Judith: Lessons are organized by level, so progress in order one level at a time.

Download Audio and Video Lessons

Add Lesson to Dashboard

Basic Lesson Checklist

Premium Lesson Checklist

The Review Track

Dialogue Only Track

Grammar Guide

Mark This Lesson Complete

Mark This Lesson as Favorite

Kanji Close Up

PDF Lesson Notes

PDF Lesson Transcript

Pop Out Audio Player

My Notes

Flashcards

Control Audio Speed

Glorious Fullscreen Video

Read Along with Video Lesson Captions

High Definition German Video Lessons

Complete Assignments

Our team of German language specialists have been releasing new audio and video lessons weekly. That's a lot of German language learning! All new lessons are FREE for the first 3 weeks before going into our Basic and Premium Archive.

Our team of German language specialists have been releasing new audio and video lessons weekly. That's a lot of German language learning! All lessons are free for the first 2 weeks before going into our Basic and Premium Archive.

Want to learn offline or on-the-go? All our Audio and Video lessons can be easily downloaded with the click of a button. Load them onto your mobile device or simply listen offline from your computer. The choice is yours!

Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and start listening today!

Want to learn offline or on-the-go? All our Audio and Video lessons can be easily downloaded with the click of a button. Load them onto your mobile device or simply listen offline from your computer. The choice is yours!

Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and start listening today!

Customize your learning with your very own Dashboard. Get lesson recommendations suited for your level, track your progress and store your favorite lessons and series all in one convenient place.

Don't have enough time for an entire lesson today? Listen to the Dialogue Only Track to hear the native Dialogue. Listening to a little bit of German everyday, no matter how much, will greatly improve your listening comprehension. Guaranteed!

Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and unlock the power of the Dialogue Only Track today!

Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Track your learning progress one lesson at a time! As you work your way through our lesson archives, we'll track your progress so you can see just how fast you're learning.

Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and to start your progress today!

Like this lesson? Want to listen again later? Mark this lesson as a favorite and create a handy shortcut in your Favorite Lesson list!

Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and start your learning today!

Take a closer look at the kanji characters used in the lesson Dialogue with the Kanji Close Up Practice Sheets! You'll learn the meaning, readings, and stroke order of each character. Plus, improve your writing with kanji stroke order practice sheets!

Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and master lesson kanji with the Kanji Close Up Practice Sheets today!

Follow along to our award winning lessons with detailed PDF Lesson Notes! These easy to print notes take a closer look at the grammar point and vocabulary words presented in the audio lesson. Plus, read more about German cultural topics related to the lesson.

Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get even MORE German language help with the PDF Lesson Notes today!

Want to understand every single word and phrase you’ll hear in this lesson?

Here’s how: just access the complete PDF transcript and you’ll never miss a word. Get your FREE Lifetime Account and unlock this powerful study tool.

Like to multitask while you study? Pop out the Audio Player to play in the background while you work, play or follow along with our Premium Tools.

Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and start your learning today!

My Notes allows you to take notes while listening to our lessons. Come across an important verb conjugation breakthrough? Learn a handy mnemonic device? Make a note of it on the lessons pages and refer back to My Notes for quick reference!

Didn't catch that last word? Want to slow down the audio so you catch every single syllable? You can! All our audio files can be slowed down and sped up to match your speaking and listening needs.

Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and start your learning today!

Sit back and enjoy the GermanPod101 video learning experience in all its fullscreen glory. Our German specialists are consistently producing and releasing new video series, with all lessons free for the first 2 weeks before going into our Basic and Premium Archive.